Tait’s Paisley Heritage Walk will start at 9.30am the west front of Paisley Abbey, Abbey Close. John Tait was a stationer on Glasgow’s High street, and published the first trade directory of Glasgow, Paisley and other west coast towns in 1783. Join us as we explore Paisley’s 1783 landscape, investigating the people who live and… More Tait’s Paisley’s Heritage Walk~ 12 May 9.30am

Join the Urban Historian as we explore Johnstone’s amazing textile heritage. The Walk will start at 2.30pm at Lidl on the High Street, and will end at Morrisons at the opposite end of the town. We would advise parking at Morrisons if you are travelling by car.

We are currently carrying out a revamp of our website. Everything is currently working, and there are few tweaks to carryout over the next few days. We will also be adding our privacy notice. We will never pass on any personal information to a third party, and will only use the information given to reply… More Revamp to the website

Our fourth History Cafe will be on History Cafe Tuesday 20th March at 10am in Blend, Paisley. Our last session on the 6th March was limited by the snow, but we hope to see a good turn out for this session. No topic has been set – This time we will chat about anything Historical or… More History Cafe Tuesday 20th March 10am – Blend, Paisley

Join us on Sat 17th March for our second Heritage Walk of the year. Paisley’s West End is an area not traditionally recognised as of being of great historical importance, but boasting of its own Cross, poets, big houses and more the history of the area stretches back to the medieval era. See https://www.theurbanhistorian.co.uk/product/uh2018-hw2-paisleys-west-end/ for… More Saturday 17th March 12 noon – Paisley’s West End Heritage Walk

Our next History Cafe in Blend will be on the 27th February between 10 and 11am. The Topic this time will be Paisley’s Textile Heritage. We will be looking at Maps, and a lot of the different textile industries that were in Paisley in the mid 19th Century.

During September 2017, Renfrewshire Council commissioned GUARD Archaeology LTD to undertake further excavation work on the site of Paisley Abbey’s Medieval Drain. The following two videos were published by the Paisley 2021 YouTube channel and tell the story of the dig. Both videos here are hosted on YouTube.

January and February are a busy couple of months for the Urban Historian. As you can see we have started to introduce our new logo and tag line – see the history around you. Our new History Cafe and Heritage walks will start in February, but we are not having a break. We are continuing… More January Update

The Welcome Library has recently published a fascinating book from 1658 to c1662 with a list of witches named in Scotland. The original manuscript list is written by several hands, but also contains a later transcript. The original document is endorsed: ‘Names of the witches. 1658’. There is one short section on Renfrewshire. You can… More Names of the witches (in Scotland) 1658 – Welcome Library

A few weeks ago, Stephen in his role as the Vice-chair & Historian of Paisley Thread Mill Museum spoke with Neil from History Scotland Magazine for one of their Podcasts. You can listen to the full broadcast through the link below. The Paisley Thread Mill Museum portion starts at 16 minutes in. https://soundcloud.com/user-42264641/history-scotland-podcast-episode-28-grand-central-paisley-thread-mill-museum#t=16:00